The King of Fighters '96 is notable for being one of the few 2D fighters with the lowest amount of projectiles. Many characters, such as Kyo Kusanagi, completely changed their fighting style into one without projectiles while many others such as Geese Howard and the entire Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting Teams had their projectile attacks changed to attacks that have only slightly higher range than normals, with Iori Yagami being the only character with a full screen projectile. While most of these characters would regain their projectiles in later games, Ryo Sakazaki is notable for keeping his short range Ko-Ou Ken.
Curiously, this is currently the only KOF game (as well as in its ports) so far that entirely omits any Command Moves from the characters' movesets.
The Bosses Team is notable for being the first and one of the few teams in the series where each character has their own theme song instead of having one theme song for the whole team (the others team are the Special Team in KOF '97 and the NESTS Team in the two versions of KOF 2002). Geese Howard and Wolfgang Krauser have a remix of their earlier theme while Mr. Big has a new theme.
In KOF XIV and KOF XV, the mix occurs with regular and DLC characters.
This game and The King of Fighters XIV are the only of the series which the sub-bosses returns in a regular team in future KOF games, and the only which they don't have evil intentions for the tournament.
In KOF '98/UM, this occurs only with the mid-boss teams.
Unused Content[]
The King of Fighters '96 has a host of unused attacks and Super Special Moves. Originally, characters had use two Super Special Moves instead of one, something that wouldn't be KOF standard until the following game. Some of these unsued moves would be used in later games;
Kyo's entire body is on fire in the Normal version, something that is usually reserved for the MAX version of the move. Additionally, the giant flame pillar that appears at the start of the move does not exist in this version.
High Angle Geyser has a variant where Terry performs the Geyser close to the ground, similarly to his Striker Move in The King of Fighters '99 & The King of Fighters 2000.
Both the Normal and MAX versions lack the close range uppercut starter, and instead has her running to her opponent to perform a series of spinning uppercuts.
This version has a variant where Athena curls into a ball and dives downwards while covered in Psycho Power, hitting multiple times without the aftereffects.
Unlike the 2002 incarnation, there doesn't seem to be any probability involving its effects. The Normal version heals a small amount of health, while the MAX version has him heal more health, but then drops a little bit of health, due to him choking on the meat bun.
Unlike the 2002 incarnation, there doesn't seem to be any probability involving its effects. The Normal version heals a small amount of health, while the MAX version has him heal more health, but then drops a little bit of health, due to him choking on the meat bun.
The initial attack for the Normal version was originally a short-ranged burst of flames rather than 108 Shiki Yami Barai. The MAX version originally used the 108 Shiki Yami Barai.
An install(?) where Chizuru had a clone on top on top of her sprite, similarlly to Duo Lon's Ougi Tajuu Genmu Ankei. Appears glitched; the only animation is a sped up sprite of Chizuru walking.
